Charles Darwin. 



shown by the fact that he was nicknamed " Gas " by 

 his fellows, while even the head-master rebuked him 

 for wasting his time upon subjects that could be of 

 no possible use to him in later life. The opinions of 

 this teacher seem to have been entertained by Dar- 

 win the elder, who, concluding that our hero was 

 accomplishing little at the school, took him away in 

 October, 1825, and sent him to the University of 

 Edinburgh to study medicine. Unfortunately, Dar- 

 win now discovered that his father was a wealthy 

 man, and, being of an argumentative mind, he failed 

 to see that it was necessary for him to make any 

 especial exertion when he was certain of coming 

 into a goodly heritage. It is interesting to note this 

 resolution — notably, not an evidence of ambition or 

 lofty ideas — appearing in a life whose history in later 

 years is marked by its high and lofty aims and fixity 

 of purpose. 



Darwin entered the University of Edinburgh, 

 where his brother was studying, without ambition, 

 and, like many boys, drifted with the current. He 

 found the lectures, with the exception of those on 

 his favourite chemistry, dull and uninteresting, while 

 those on materia medica by Dr. Duncan he describes 

 as something fearful to remember in their dullness. 

 The subjects were distasteful to him, causing him to 

 neglect dissection, which in later years he appears to 

 have greatly regretted, being an absolute necessity 

 in the elaborate and minute investigations that 

 formed his life-work. Despite his lack of interest 

 as a student he obtained patients, and, in all proba- 

 bility, would have succeeded under the tutelage 



